1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an audio signal processing system that links a plurality of audio signal processing apparatuses to operate the apparatuses in a cooperative manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known audio signal processing apparatus includes an audio signal processing unit which is constructed of a processor (for example, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP)) that can be operated according to a program and that can process audio signals based on a mixer configuration (signal processing configuration) edited using an external Personal Computer (PC). This audio signal processing apparatus is referred to as a “mixing engine” in this specification of patent application. The mixing engine can internally store a signal processing configuration edited and transmitted by a PC and can independently process audio signals based on the stored signal processing configuration. It is also possible to construct a large-size mixer system by combining a plurality of mixing engines. Non-Patent Reference 1, “Digital Mixing Engine DME64N/24N Instruction Manual”, Yamaha, 2001, P. 111, has introduced a concept called “zone” to allow a plurality of mixing engines to operate in a cooperative manner. In addition, Patent Reference 1, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-252686, has disclosed an audio signal processing system that freely links a plurality of mixing engines to construct a zone, thereby achieving cooperative operation on a zone basis.
When a mixer system is constructed by combining a plurality of mixing engines in this manner, the mixer system may have functions to display a zone configuration screen representing the overall system configuration to allow the user to view the connection relationship or the like of each mixing engine and to allow the user to connect lines between the variety of devices on the zone configuration screen and to create a screen representing the overall configuration. For example, see Non-Patent Reference 2, “DME Designer Version 1.1 Instruction Manual”, Yamaha, 2004, P. 203-207.
In the related art, devices interlock or mutually link to each other on a zone basis and thus there is a problem in that devices in one zone cannot be controlled from devices in another zone. This is because devices in one zone have no means for communicating with devices of another zone. In addition, when a plurality of zones are provided, the related art has a problem in that it is not possible to collectively control devices of the plurality of zones at the same time although there is a demand for collective control of the plurality of zones from the PC.
There is also a problem with “scenes” which is a preset of mixing parameters. Namely, it is not possible to perform scene recall of a plurality of zones in an interlocking (or cooperative) manner. This is because a master device of a zone manages only slave devices under its control. Even when a scene recall instruction is issued at a PC, it is only possible to specify one zone and to instruct scene recall of the specified zone and it is not possible to instruct collective scene recall of a plurality of zones.
In addition, it is not possible to make a setting for a specific scene such that a specific device in the same zone is not interlocked for the specific scene. That is, when a scene is recalled in a zone, this scene recall must be performed for all devices in the zone since all devices in the zone always interlock with each other. However, one may desire to recall a scene in a part of devices while keeping the current state of the remaining part of the devices unchanged (i.e., without recalling the scene in the remaining devices).
In the related art, devices interlock with each other on a zone basis as described above and thus, when a system configuration screen is displayed on a monitor for editing, windows (frames) must be displayed respectively for zones. That is, configurations of a plurality of zones cannot be displayed as a whole in one window. However, according to the user selection manner, one audio system may be constructed of a plurality of zones and, in this case, one may desire to view the entirety of the plurality of zones on a single screen. The related art cannot satisfy this desire.